StockNews.com Upgrades Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) to “Buy”

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) was upgraded by investment analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued on Thursday.

Other research analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $16.50 price objective for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, February 28th. Morgan Stanley restated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $20.00 price target on shares of Cleveland-Cliffs in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Citigroup lowered shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $22.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, March 13th. TheStreet lowered shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from a “b-” rating to a “c” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. Finally, Argus lowered shares of Cleveland-Cliffs from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 8th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $19.92.

Cleveland-Cliffs Trading Down 0.2 %

NYSE CLF opened at $20.79 on Thursday. Cleveland-Cliffs has a 12 month low of $13.61 and a 12 month high of $22.97. The company has a 50-day moving average of $20.95 and a 200-day moving average of $18.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 1.89 and a quick ratio of 0.62. The company has a market cap of $9.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.00, a P/E/G ratio of 0.75 and a beta of 2.03.

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 30th. The mining company reported ($0.05) EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.05). Cleveland-Cliffs had a net margin of 1.81% and a return on equity of 6.79%. The company had revenue of $5.11 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.16 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted ($0.30) EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Cleveland-Cliffs will post 1.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Lourenco Goncalves sold 187,136 shares of Cleveland-Cliffs stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.19, for a total transaction of $3,778,275.84. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,699,089 shares in the company, valued at $54,494,606.91. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CEO Lourenco Goncalves sold 187,136 shares of Cleveland-Cliffs stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.19, for a total transaction of $3,778,275.84. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,699,089 shares in the company, valued at $54,494,606.91. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Terry G. Fedor sold 27,430 shares of Cleveland-Cliffs stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.19, for a total transaction of $553,811.70. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 534,617 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,793,917.23. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 221,066 shares of company stock worth $4,464,688 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 1.76% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Cleveland-Cliffs

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Korea Investment CORP grew its position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 30.6% during the third quarter. Korea Investment CORP now owns 514,890 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $8,048,000 after buying an additional 120,540 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC grew its position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 240.4% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,988,689 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $31,083,000 after buying an additional 1,404,491 shares in the last quarter. Douglas Lane & Associates LLC grew its position in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 55.5% during the third quarter. Douglas Lane & Associates LLC now owns 1,743,513 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $27,251,000 after buying an additional 621,937 shares in the last quarter. Aigen Investment Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs during the third quarter worth approximately $4,970,000. Finally, Handelsinvest Investeringsforvaltning acquired a new stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs during the third quarter worth approximately $3,908,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 67.68% of the company’s stock.

Cleveland-Cliffs Company Profile

Cleveland-Cliffs is the largest flat-rolled steel company and the largest iron ore pellet producer in North America. The company is vertically integrated from mining through iron making, steelmaking, rolling, finishing and downstream with hot and cold stamping of steel parts and components. The company was formerly known as Cliffs Natural Resources Inc and changed its name to Cleveland-Cliffs Inc in August 2017.